missions first

In his series on Romans in a Week, NT Wright offered a clarifying view of the place of missions in the church.

So often in the church we seem to think that first the church has to get its own act together, i.e., the church has to become more perfect than it is, and then if we have time and energy left after that, we engage in mission. But for Paul, mission is the thing that the church is here for. And the critique of the church and the getting of the church's life together is the reflex of the call to mission.

Quoting William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury in the mid 1900's, "the Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members".

Driving programs which include missions or even to build missions is backwards. We must have a heart to be ambassadors of Christ and His Kingdom to the world. From that all else falls into place.

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